Improvement in cap-extractors for cartridges



W. G. PICKERSGILL.

Cap Extractor. No. 97.805. Patented Dec. 14, 1869.

I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM C. PICKERSGILL, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR TOPROVIDENCE TOOL COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENTlN CAP-EXTRACTORS FOR CARTRIDGES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 97,805, dated December14, 1869.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM G. PICKERS- GILL, of the city and county ofProvidence, in the State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and usefulCapExtractor for Metallic Cartridges; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing specification, taken in connection with the drawing making apart of the same, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

The apparatus hereinafter described is one of a series of hand-machinesdesigned to perform respectively the operations of extracting the cap ofa discharged metallic cartridge, resetting a fresh cap, and insertingthe bullet into the end of the cartridge-shell after the latter has beencharged with powder. Metallic cartridges for breech-loading firearms arenow generally constructed with a cap charged with a fulminate insertedin the center of the head.

Hitherto a great Waste of spent shells has been occasioned from the wantof any convenient portable tools for performing the several offices forwhich the hereinafter-described instrument and the others of the seriesto which it belongs are designed to perform.

Referring to the perspective drawing, A A are levers pivoted at B, andcapable, like the handles of a pair of pliers, of being held by onehand. The lever A has a short arm, C, which is furnished with a chiselor sharp spurpoint, a, the cutting-end of which will, as the handles AA' are made to approach each other, travel in the arc of a circle. Thelever A' has for its short arm a yoke-piece, D, which stands at nearly aright angle with the axis of the long arm. To this yoke is hinged, atb,a bent lever, E, the longer arm of which is furnished with a suitablebed, upon which a cartridgeshell can he placed so that its axis will beparallel, or nearly so, with the axis of the said arm.

It is obvious that the bent lever E is capable, by reason of its beinghinged to the yoke D, at b, of a movement independent of the movementgiven to the yoke by the lever A.

To extract the cap the cartridge-shell is placed upon its bed on thelong arm of the lever E, with its head toward the chisel a, and theflange thereof resting in a channel cut in the bed to receive it, thelevers A A being open. The lever E is held by the left hand, the thumbresting upon the forward end of the shell to hold it upon its hed. Thelevers A A, held by the right hand, are made to appreach each other, andthe point of the chisel a, which stands obliquely to the plane of thehead of the shell, is forced into the metal of the cap. So soon as ithas fairly entered it a slight upward movement is given to the lever E,which, causing the head of the shell to travel in an opposite coursefrom that which the point of the chisel is describing, will effect withperfect facility the extraction ofthe cap.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The apparatus for extracting the cap from a metallic cartridge,substantially as herein shown and described.

WILLIAM C. PICKERSGILL.

Witnesses:

OavrLLE PEOKHAM, J. A. SHATTUCK.

